1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for cleaning or otherwise enhancing the quality of finite element meshes.
2. Background Art
One method for cleaning a finite element mesh is known as the paver cleanup method developed at Sandia National Laboratories. This method focuses on the valence of finite element mesh elements—the number of element edges that include a node or the number of mesh elements around a node. Because the paver mesh comprises all quad elements, the goal of the cleanup algorithm is to generate as many nodes as possible having a valence of 4.
The first step in the paver cleanup method is, for each node in the mesh, to compute the node valence and the valence of all nodes in the ring around it. This series of numbers is searched through a library of approximately 150 known patterns. When a match is found, encoded instructions associated with the matching pattern specify a change in the mesh to reduce the number of nodes that do not have a valence of 4. The changed modes are then smoothed.
The second step involves smoothing the entire mesh. The third step involves, for each element in the mesh, measuring the angles of each element. If angle any is extreme, an edge is rotated with a neighbor element. In other words, elements on either side of an edge are removed and replaced with two new elements with a different edge position.
Although the paver cleanup method may be effective at controlling/correcting node valence, the method does not necessarily generate elements having a better overall quality. The present invention is an alternative to the paver and other prior art methodologies for cleaning or otherwise optimizing finite element meshes.